Current weather

Fire chief: Cuts would hurt response time

Posted: Saturday, May 25, 2002

By Shana Gallentinesgallentine@onlineathens.com

Proposed budget cuts to the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department would adversely affect response time to fires in west Athens, Chief Wendell Faulkner said Friday, but he believes there is no other way to satisfy a mandatory budget cut requirement.

IMPACT OF BUDGET CUTS

Here's a look at how the proposed Athens-Clarke County budget cuts would impact the fire department:

$443,000 decrease in total expenditures, a 5.3 percent drop from last year

Elimination of six vacant firefighter positions, leaving a total of 160 positions countywide.

Abandoning use of a 1991 ladder truck at Fire Station No. 2 on Atlanta Highway. Ladder truck service for the west end of town would come from Fire Station No. 3 on South Lumpkin Street or Fire Station No. 1 on College Avenue downtown.

In response to a request from Mayor Doc Eldridge that each county department reduce its budget request for the coming fiscal year by 5 percent, Faulkner has recommended a total of $443,200 in cuts, including the elimination of six vacant fire department positions. The proposal would also remove a 1991 ladder truck from service at Fire Station No. 2 on Atlanta Highway until budget conditions improve.

The employees currently assigned to the Station No. 2 ladder truck would be reassigned throughout the county's seven stations as needed, Faulkner said.

''We're convinced if we have to cut 5 percent, it's the best place to do that. I wouldn't say I'm ecstatic about that, but it was what we needed to do to cut the budget,'' Faulkner said.

The county commission is scheduled to vote on the budget -- which would go into effect July 1 -- at its regular June 4 meeting, the last opportunity for public comment on the budget.

Under the proposal, Fire Station No. 3 on South Lumpkin Street would keep its 1975 ladder truck because of its proximity to the high-rise University of Georgia dorms on Baxter Street and other multi-story buildings; Fire Station No. 1 on College Avenue would maintain a ladder truck because of its proximity to downtown.

But Faulkner concedes the cuts at the Atlanta Highway station would make it more difficult for firefighters to get the job done in the area covered by Station No. 2, which includes Georgia Square Mall, Mitchell Bridge Road, Timothy Road and Atlanta Highway.

''... When we're losing this ladder truck and personnel, we're delaying the time it will take for the proper amount of people to get on a scene,'' he said. ''There will be some delayed response time -- even a lay person can understand that.''

It's a situation that has caused anxiety for some. Cassie Kinney, one of the board members for the Athens Area Apartment Association, a group of rental property managers, said she fears the loss of a ladder truck will jeopardize the west side's multi-story apartment complexes.

''It's going to affect everything on the west side,'' said Kinney, who spoke against the cuts to commissioners during a budget hearing Wednesday. ''If the ladder truck has got to come all the way from Lumpkin or College Avenue, they're going to be looking at ashes by the time they get there.''

Walter Dudley, who lives on the west side and has been retired from the fire department for three years, said the cuts will move the county away from meeting the National Fire Protection Association's minimum staffing guidelines. The cuts would reduce the number of employees from 166 to 160.

''You don't make those kinds of cuts to a public safety department. They (the commission) need to go ahead and bite the bullet and ask for a millage rate increase to get the level of service we need,'' Dudley said.

Dudley also maintains that the older ladder truck on Lumpkin Street, which he says is inadequate, should be retired rather than the newer truck on Atlanta Highway. Faulkner said the newer truck won't fit at the existing Lumpkin Street station. A new station is slated to soon be built at Lumpkin and South Milledge Avenue.

In addition to the safety concerns, Faulkner said he believes the cuts will have ''a tremendous impact'' on employee morale. Elimination of the ladder truck also means several sergeant and lieutenant positions will be phased out through attrition, meaning fewer opportunities for advancement within the department.

Faulkner added that many firefighters also have a hard time accepting cuts within their department when $589,000 in the budget has been earmarked for possible pay increases for police and sheriff's deputies. Faulkner and all of the other county department heads sent a three-page memo to commissioners this week, expressing concerns about pay inequity in the budget.

''Everyone is uncomfortable with why they had to undergo cuts in their personnel and reductions in their services, which they feel went to two other departments and their employees,'' Faulkner said.

''... Irregardless of any morale issues, the firefighters will continue to give 110 percent to their jobs with the resources they have. But it's difficult for us to move backward.''